Each year, a large number of vehicle accidents occur where one or more occupants of a vehicle is trapped inside the wreckage thereof. In such incidences, rescue/emergency personnel typically have to extricate the occupant from the vehicle.
The way in which an occupant is extricated from a vehicle depends on a number of factors. These factors include the amount of damage to the vehicle and/or the injuries to the occupant. For instance, many accidents result in damage to the body of the vehicle that prevents the opening or removal of the doors of the vehicle. In other instances, the movement of an injured occupant may require the removal of portions of the vehicle from around the occupant to allow for their immobilization prior to removal from the vehicle.
Often, the easiest way to access an occupant is by breaking windows or glass of the vehicle. Accordingly, there are a number of portable glass breaking tools that are used for this purpose. In instances where removal of the windows is not sufficient to provide necessary access to the occupants, rescue techniques may involve use of saws, torches or hydraulically powered shears for cutting away portions of a damaged vehicle such that rescuers gain access to a trapped occupant. One such device is sometimes termed the Jaws-of-Life®. This and similar tools typically utilize a pair of pivotally interconnected jaws that may be forcibly closed by hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical actuators to shear through portions of the vehicle.
While breaking the windows of a vehicle or cutting portions of the vehicle away provides access to the occupants, these actions themselves can result in a safety hazard to the occupants and/or rescue personnel. Specifically, the sharp edges of the broken glass and/or sheared metal may provide a laceration risk to the occupants and/or rescue personnel during an extrication procedure.